Sitting in the corner, watching all the world go by

But never mind Tommy Steele. I’m sat in the ‘quiet area’ of Kobenhavn’s Lufthavn, looking out of the window at the planes arriving and leaving. Neither of us could imagine a UK airport having a quiet area – it’s alien to the nature of airport designers.

It’s interesting how planes get decorated these days. There’s one I can see with a picture of a dancing woman in a bright pink dress on the tail. Baltic airlines. A new arrival from Norwegian airways has a photo showing the head and shoulders of a woman from the 20s – no idea who – it’s too far to read that curly script style. Presumably someone famous in Norway.


I was sitting back in my chair in the quiet area with a full tummy, thinking about what characterised Denmark to me after this trip. There seem to be 2 main things: the food and the people.

Food has always been interesting: never dull. The last 2 nights we ate in the same restaurant/bar (the unfortunately named Restaurant Puk). On the first night I had a rare (smallish) steak covered in mashed potato that was then grilled to brown nicely, served with a knob of hot paprika butter. Last night I had Kidneys (a huge pile) again grilled to perfection, topped with bacon done well so it was crisp and salty, and served with onions, mushrooms and a creamy sauce, plus new potatoes. Absolutely delicious.

And tonight we ate in a place here at the airport called “A Hereford Beefstouw”. The steak here was cooked out in the open, served with chips and parsly+garlic butters, it was bloody, succulent and sumptuous.

The restaurants have been good. I couldn’t imagine finding these anywhere else in the world. They’re too earthy for Sweden, too relaxed for Germany, too homely for America and not elegant enough for France. Fantastic.


The people are like the food (not a surprise) and are polite, yet down to earth. The girls are mostly slim and sexy, without being ‘in your face’ about it. The guys are mixed, but you can imagine some of them leaping from longboats waving axes in a way that the Swedes just don't bring to mind. Round the back of the hotel was the red light district, which our cabs went through on the way to the exhibition centre. Stuff on display was way beyond anything you’d find in London, and I’ve already mentioned that this kind of thing was invisible in Stockholm. But almost everywhere there was a smile, a nod, a gentle encouragement. They’re clearly not perfect, but they also seem welcoming.

And they drink a lot of STRONG beer.

My colleague described them as a caring people, strong on social responsibility, quite moral in their own way, and rather relaxed when it came to issues below the belt. They certainly smiled a lot, although a delegate from the conference had her rented flat broken into, and no-one apparently was willing to actually help. Her impression was that even the police weren’t interested. To add insult to injury, she had a pile of Australian Dollars, and the thieves weren’t interested in them. Says something about the value of some currencies ;-)


Anyway, nice as it was, I’m glad to be home again.